CSU sets tightest limits yet

CSU admissions crunch widens

By Jenifer Goodwin
| 6:27 a.m.Nov. 20, 2008

Students passed the main staircase at Cal State San Marcos. Last year the university accepted qualified students through March for fall admission, but now it cannot guarantee that anyone applying after Nov. 30 will get in.
— John Gastaldo

Students passed the main staircase at Cal State San Marcos. Last year the university accepted qualified students through March for fall admission, but now it cannot guarantee that anyone applying after Nov. 30 will get in.
— John Gastaldo

An unprecedented decision to limit admissions across the California State University system could force many San Diego County high school seniors to look closer to home for a college education.

Facing a reduction in state funding and a surge in applications, the CSU system is moving up application deadlines, eliminating 10,000 admission slots for fall 2009 and raising academic standards for students who want to attend campuses outside their local area.

The changes, which will reduce total Cal State enrollment to about 450,000, are expected to be announced today by Chancellor Charles Reed.

“This is one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make as chancellor of the CSU,” Reed, who has led the system since 1998, said at a board of trustees meeting in Long Beach yesterday. Six of the most popular campuses around the state, including San Diego State, already were considered impacted, meaning they have more qualified applicants than available slots. Reed's announcement will usher in the first systemwide impaction.

Under the new policy, nearly all of the system's 23 campuses will begin ranking prospective students based on grade-point averages and standardized test scores.

The exception will be applicants who attend high schools in a given campus'“service area.”

San Diego State's service area includes students at high schools south of state Route 56. Cal State San Marcos' service area includes high schools from state Route 56 north to Mission Viejo in Orange County, and east to Murrieta and Lake Elsinore.

Qualified students from the service area still will be ensured admission if they apply before Nov. 30, as will junior-level community college students who have completed all of their necessary coursework for transfer.

Last year, about half of students at SDSU and Cal State San Marcos hailed from the schools' service areas. For the system as a whole, that number is 80 percent to 90 percent, officials said.

But students outside a school's service area – especially those from other states and countries – may find it more difficult to gain admission.

“There will be students in San Francisco who want to go to Long Beach or Chico or SDSU who will not be able to get in,” Reed said in a teleconference with reporters Monday.

School officials could not say exactly what GPA or test scores would be needed to ensure admission to a student's top choice because applications are still being processed.

One thing is certain: Anyone wanting to go to a Cal State school should get the application in by Nov. 30.

In previous years, only the most popular campuses, including San Diego State, closed application windows that soon. Others allowed students to apply through the spring, and some even until the start of fall classes.

Under the new system, applicants who miss the Nov. 30 deadline could find themselves shut out.

“There is no room for somebody that makes mistakes in their application process or has a late application this year,” said Ethan Singer, SDSU's associate vice president for academic affairs.

Last year, Cal State San Marcos accepted qualified students who applied into March. This year, the school cannot guarantee admission to those applying after Nov. 30 and could opt to close the application window early.

Such restrictions couldn't come at a worse time.

The slumping economy has sent some students looking for the relative bargain of a Cal State education. Undergraduate tuition was $3,048 in the 2008-09 school year, though fees vary somewhat among campuses.

Applications to Cal State schools were up 24 percent as of last week. At Cal State San Marcos, applications have surged 41 percent, said Darren Bush, associate vice president for enrollment management services.

Applications were down slightly at SDSU, but officials expect the number to jump in the days before the Nov. 30 deadline.

SDSU already had been struggling to control its enrollment, Singer said. A past budget squeeze forced a reduction in the freshman class from a high of 5,559 in 2007 to about 4,300 this year. Singer said another reduction is expected for fall 2009, though he could not give precise figures.

The competition means out-of-area applicants will need to do better than ever to get in.

In 2008, incoming SDSU freshmen from high schools in the service area had an average GPA of 3.33 and an SAT average of 980, compared with 3.63 and 1,132 for students from outside the service area. This year, “the gap will widen,” said Jack Beresford, an SDSU spokesman.

Because of budgetary pressures, SDSU officials said they are eliminating some classes and consolidating others into bigger classrooms as early as this spring.

The CSU system's budget, already $215 million below its operational needs, is expected to see an additional $66 million in midyear cuts.

On Tuesday, several hundred students and faculty members protested the budget and enrollment cuts outside the CSU headquarters in Long Beach.

“The governor is slamming the door closed on the promise of a quality higher education for an entire generation of students,” said Lillian Taiz, California Faculty Association president.

Given the changes, Rod Jiu, a guidance counselor at Rancho Bernardo High School, said he is stressing the importance of applying to a range of colleges. “It's just gotten so competitive,” he said.

Although Rancho Bernardo High is in the Cal State San Marcos service area, many students prefer San Diego State for the Division I sports, the traditions or because that's where their parents went.

Jiu said he is encouraging those students to apply to Cal State San Marcos to improve their chances, and he said they seem to be listening.

Karina Roblero, 17, a senior at Carlsbad High School, applied to Cal State San Marcos and SDSU. Her dream is SDSU for the campus life, but with a 3.52 GPA, she's not sure she will be accepted.

She said she won't be too disappointed if she doesn't, because Cal State San Marcos has a reputation for smaller classes. “It's more of a sure thing you'll get all the classes you want,” Roblero said.